In practice, software application programs typically assign fixed fonts to a document created within that application. Later, in the process of editing and/or printing, these fonts are requested from the operating environment and applied to the document. In some cases, however, a particular font may not be available as requested, in which case the operating system may automatically substitute what it considers to be a suitable alternative. Frequently, however, the substituted font looks sufficiently different from the requested font to be unacceptable to the user.
A requested font may be unavailable for several reasons. For example, a user may uninstall seldom-used fonts in an effort to conserve system resources. Alternatively, the document containing the unavailable font may have been received from another user to whom the font was available. In such circumstances, increasing the selection of fonts available to a user, without requiring the actual installation of such fonts in the operating environment in advance, would improve the user's chances of seeing the document in its original format without unnecessary consumption of system resources. In general, automatic management of such a font selection process, where possible, would be preferable to existing techniques.